Friedelin, a novel inhibitor of CYP17A1 in prostate cancer from Cassia tora

In prostate cancer (PC), drugs targeting CYP17A1 have shown great success in regulating PC progression. However, successful drug molecules show adverse side effects and therapeutic resistance in PC. Therefore, we proposed to discover the potent phytochemical-based inhibitor against CYP17A1 using virtual screening. In this study, a phytochemicals library of ∼13800 molecules was selected to screen the best possible inhibitors against CYP17A1. A molecular modelling approach investigated detailed intermolecular interactions, their structural stability, and binding affinity. Further, in vitro and in vivo studies were performed to confirm the anticancer activity of identified potential inhibitor against CYP17A1. Friedelin from Cassia tora (CT) is identified as the best possible inhibitor from the screened library. MD simulation study reveals stable binding of Friedelin to conserved binding pocket of CYP17A1 with higher binding affinity than studied control, that is, Orteronel. Friedelin was tested on hormone-sensitive (22Rv1) and insensitive (DU145) cell lines and the IC50 value was found to be 72.025 and 81.766 µg/ml, respectively. CT extract showed a 25.28% IC50 value against 22Rv1, ∼92.6% increase in late Apoptosis/Necrosis, and three folds decrease in early apoptosis in treated cells compared to untreated cells. Further, animal studies show a marked decrease in prostate weight by 39.6% and prostate index by 36.5%, along with a reduction in serum PSA level by 71.7% and testosterone level by 92.4% compared to the testosterone group, which was further validated with histopathological studies. Thus, we propose Friedelin and CT extract as potential leads, which could be taken further for drug development in PC. Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma